Mayor sets out plan to silence the public
Mayor Tom Wootton has told councillors that he wants to make it harder for the public to raise concerns, harder for councillors to ask questions, and easier for him to spend money.
In response to a question about the Council’s constitution from Councillor Henry Vann (Liberal Democrat Group Leader) at last week’s Council meeting, the Mayor said that there were many issues with the Constitution that he wanted to change.
He was unable to think of them in the meeting, but has now circulated a list of concerns. This included the idea that the ‘petition threshold at 30 is too low’, the ‘key decision threshold is too low at £50,000’ and regarding councillors’ questions, ‘questions should pertain to items on the agenda’ – meaning that many important live issues affecting residents would be excluded from being aired.
Councillor Vann commented, “I am horrified by this list. The Mayor wants to stifle residents’ voices with these suggestions. Some local petitions about issues that impact just a few houses are going to struggle to achieve more than 30 signatures, but they are a crucial tool for residents to ensure their voice is heard. The restrictions on questions is a blatant attempt to stifle scrutiny in a public forum and will stop councillors raising residents’ concerns. And to say that the limit on decisions that need to be publicly accounted for is too low at £50,000 is absolutely astonishing given the current financial crisis.
“Liberal Democrats have spent the last two years warning the Mayor about his spending. In the last fortnight we have seen the Government step in with a bailout and send in the Inspectors. Removing checks on his spending sprees is the last thing we should be considering.
“Having blamed just about everyone else, he is now blaming residents and the constitution of the council for his crisis. Enough is enough. The Mayor must resign. I urge residents to sign the petition on our website calling for him to go.”